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Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #19767.
This work is a scholarly biography that interweaves George Borrow’s own letters with extensive commentary on his life and acquaintances. The opening pages begin with a meticulous “Transcriber’s Notes” explaining typographical conventions, followed by a lengthy Preface that lists the many individuals, executors of Henrietta MacOubrey, Sir William Robertson Nicoll, Mr. Herbert Jenkins, Mr. Wilfrid J. Bowring, and others, who supplied the manuscripts and offered assistance. The author, Clement King Shorter, then outlines a detailed table of contents, indicating a structure of more than thirty chapters that trace Borrow’s family background, schooling, travels, linguistic pursuits, and later friendships, all supported by facsimile illustrations of letters, portraits, and manuscript pages. The introductory essay situates this volume within a tradition of “Circle” biographies, acknowledging earlier studies of Borrow and justifying the inclusion of newly discovered correspondence as its chief contribution.
The narrative voice is that of an early‑20th‑century literary historian, formal yet personally invested, marked by extensive footnotes, acknowledgments, and occasional self‑referential asides. Its style reflects the era’s reverence for documentary evidence and a penchant for exhaustive detail, making the text dense but rewarding. Readers who relish Victorian‑era scholarship, enjoy primary source material, or have a particular fascination with Borrow’s linguistic adventures, his travels in Spain, and his network of literary friends will find this book compelling. Those seeking a brisk popular biography may prefer a more concise account, while dedicated Borrovian enthusiasts will appreciate the depth of research and the wealth of unpublished letters.
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I have to express my indebtedness first of all to the executors of Henrietta MacOubrey, George Borrow's stepdaughter, who kindly placed Borrow's letters and manuscripts at my disposal. To the survivor of these executors, a lady who resides in an English provincial town, I would particularly wish to render fullest acknowledgment did she not desire to escape all publicity and forbid me to give her name in print. I am indebted to Sir William Robertson Nicoll without whose kindly and active intervention I should never have taken active steps to obtain the material to which this biography owes its principal value. I am under great obligations to Mr. Herbert Jenkins, the publisher, in that, although the author of a successful biography of Borrow, he has, with rare kindliness, brought me into communication with Mr. Wilfrid J. Bowring, the grandson of Sir John Bowring. To Mr. Wilfrid Bowring I am indebted in that he has handed to me the whole of Borrow's letters to his grandfather. I have to thank Mr. James Hooper of Norwich for the untiring zeal with which he has unearthed for me a valuable series of notes including certain interesting letters concerning Borrow. Mr. Hooper has generously placed his collection, with which he at one time contemplated writing a biography of Borrow, in my hands. I thank Dr. Aldis Wright for reading my chapter on Edward FitzGerald; also Mr. W.H. Peet, Mr. Aleck Abrahams, and Mr. Joseph Shaylor for assistance in the little known field of Sir Richard Phillips's life. I have further to thank my friends, Edward Clodd and Thomas J. Wise, for reading my proof-sheets. To Theodore Watts-Dunton, an untiring friend of thirty years, I have also to acknowledge abundant obligations.
C. K. S.
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